The English Avenger
by Gaia caecilia
Summary: Trying to run from a Con Tony has forced the Avengers to go to in London, Steve meets a rather interesting English girl. *Ignores everything post Avengers Assemble as the better part was written before anything else was produced*. *One shot*


This is my first foray into the Avengers universe, and something that's been sitting round my unfinished folder for years. I recently decided it was never going to get much further than it is, having long forgotten what the rest of the plot line was going to be so I just polished off the end and am publishing it as a oneshot. If people want to take it and make a full story of it, just contact me and I'm happy to share.

*****Warning, this ignores anything after Avengers Assemble as the original story was written when there wasn't anything else out there.*****

Disclaimer: I don't own anything marvel or in fact basically anything that isn't Eleanor and her fashion sense.

The English Avenger

Steve sat down on a bench and sighed deeply. He had no idea why Tony had dragged him and the other Avengers to London for this conference thing he was going to but he had snuck out to the nearby park at the first opportunity.

It had been overwhelming to be honest. Apparently the thing was some sort of superhero convention and the organisers had jumped to invite honest-to-god (literally in the case of Thor) Superheroes to their convention. Tony had of course taken this as a great idea and insisted on the whole lot of them coming. The attendees had turned out to be, in Steve's honest opinion, rabid.

"You look like you could use this." He almost jumped, not having heard someone approaching and looked up. There was a pretty brunette holding out a packet of pain killers to him with a wry smile as well as a bottle of water. Steve sighed in relief having only just realised he did in fact have a stinking headache.

"Thanks miss." She smiled and sat down beside him and accepted the packet and bottle back with a smile. Steve took the time to properly look at the girl who was sitting quietly beside him. To his surprise he noted an outfit that wouldn't have looked out of place in his own time. A black pencil skirt with loose high necked blouse and a navy blue tailored jacket. She also wore conservative blue court shoes and cherry red lipstick. The only other touch of makeup was a little bit of mascara. She needed nothing else.

"Sorry, I didn't introduce myself. I'm Steve Roger's miss." She smiled at him, a soft genuine smile that Steve couldn't help but relax at.

"Eleanor Claire. I'm guessing from the stressed look you're not a tourist?" He smiled.

"No, my friend insisted on dragging me to this convention and I do not deal well with a bunch of slightly insane fans." She laughed, tilting her head back, showing off a creamy white swan neck.

"Do you need help escaping your friend and the convention from hell for the rest of the afternoon?" Steve gave her a curious look. "I'm in London for a job interview that finished this morning and am just kicking round until Dad gets out of work. We're going for a meal out once he's finished work but until then I'm basically killing time." Steve smiled and nodded.

"If your offering to help, then yes. I need to get lunch some time soon though." Eleanor nodded at him.

"So do I. There's a nice little pub that does decent food a few streets away if you want?" Steve grinned and nodded. English pub food sounded just like what he wanted.

XXX

Some time later the two of them sat ensconced at a table waiting for their food order. Eleanor looked at him.

"I'm guessing your over from the states?" Steve nodded and looked at her curiously, wondering at the fact that the statement implied she didn't know who he was. He was under the impression that any part of the world with TV knew who he was. He looked closer at her expression. There was a look on her mostly stoic face that told him she did in fact know precisely who he was. He raised and eyebrow at her and she gave him a knowing little smile. "Since you are obviously trying to avoid that identity I decided you might prefer it if I pretended I don't know about your star spangled alter ego."

Steve had to laugh at that.

"It's appreciated. So do you have any idea what to do with the afternoon?" She smiled at him.

"I usually go round one of the museums. Do you happen to have an oyster card?" Steve frowned blankly at her. "It's basically an easy way of doing public transport ticketing designed to lessen congestion round London. If you have a contactless card it'll work the same way." He gave her a baffled look.

"I honestly have no idea what you are talking about." She smiled at him.

"Have you been given much help acclimatizing to the twenty first century?" He shook his head, flushing slightly. "It's no problem. A lot has happened in the last seventy odd years. Do you have any bank cards on you? If you do I'll check whether they're contactless or not, I have no idea if America has that tech yet or not but I'd imagine so. Either way I'll explain it to you as well as the joys of the modern London Public Transport system, which is the most efficient way to get around this city, hence why I was asking about Oyster cards." Steve nodded in comprehension and took out his wallet. Eleanor smiled at him and took a quick look at his one card before beginning to explain.

Once lunch was done they took the tube towards the Imperial War Museum.

During lunch Steve had found out the Eleanor had a talent for explaining the vagaries of the modern world understandably without patronising him or making him feel stupid. He'd soon become more comfortable with the girl who also seemed to have a talent for getting him to talk about his feelings as well. It was probably the way she listened without judging yet didn't feel like a shrink.

At some point he confessed a desire to just be told what had happened while he'd been on ice. It seemed it hadn't occurred to SHIELD that he might need an easily understandable explanation of what had happened in the meantime and his own searching hadn't gone all that well. That was what had precipitated the decision to go to the Imperial War Museum.

When they got there Steve immediately felt a little more at home. The music playing quiet in the background was the sort of stuff he'd heard a lot particularly when he had been in England during the war. Eleanor smiled at him and began showing him round, giving him a brief low down on the events since the second world was, using the displays as aids. Steve was swiftly coming to the conclusion she should be a teacher. She'd done more to help him in that afternoon than all the people SHIELD had sent to try and get him accustomed to the present day.

Around mid afternoon his pocket began vibrating and playing a rather crude tune and Steve blushed as he pulled out the phone he'd yet to learn to use and stared at it, not sure what to do. Eleanor looked at him.

"It's Stark. Do you want to answer it?" Steve shook his head. No doubt it was Tony realising finally that he wasn't there. She dragged a finger across the screen and the dreadful noise stopped. "There. I'm guessing you didn't choose that ringtone?"

"I have no idea how to work this thing at all." She grinned at him.

"Give it here then. I'll change the ringtone to something more your style and then explain it to you. Granted I'm no techy but I can show you the main functions of it and how they work." Steve smiled thankfully as she fiddled with the phone, doing goodness only knows what. "They we are, your ringtone is now 'Coming in on a wing and a prayer'. It seemed appropriate." Steve grinned, blushing slightly as he spotted the slight reference to how he had ended up in the sea.

They finished up the museum and took a trip to the shop before finding a bench where Eleanor proceed to show him how to use his phone. The lesson in the fine art of texting was interrupted by a loud call.

"Capsicle!" Eleanor sighed and looked to the sky as if praying for patience.

"A mister Stark one presumes?" Steve grinned. Her cut glass British accent couldn't have made that question sound more deprecating if she'd tried.

"There you are. I've been looking everywhere for you. Well, actually I hacked the GPS on you're phone but whatever." The two shared a look and rolled their eyes, deliberately ignoring him. The man carried on oblivious for some moments as he walked round the bench to face the pair. "Hey, are you ignoring me?"

Eleanor gave him a supercilious smile.

"No, we just invested in earplugs that filter out the sound of uncouth colonials with delusions of grandeur." Tony just stared at her as Steve grinned. She'd put on an upper class drawl on the outrageous statement and he had to commend her ability to keep a straight face in light of Tony spluttering. They then made the mistake of catching each other's eyes and both burst out laughing as Tony continued to splutter realising he'd just been made the butt of a joke.

"Wow, have you pulled?" Steve looked baffled at the slang.

"No he hasn't Mr Stark. I know it may be a foreign concept to you but it possible to two people of opposing genders to associate in a purely platonic manner." Tony stared at her.

"Wow, you pulled the love child of a dictionary and the queen."

"That, Mr Stark, is a very disturbing mental image." Steve snorted. Eleanor looked at her own phone. "Now, I'm afraid I shall have to go. I need to get to where I'm meeting my dad. I'm already running late. Sorry, bye!" She risen, a look of slightly worry and her face and before the two of them could say much at all she was gone. The two stared in her wake.

"Please tell me you at least got her number." Tony muttered. Steve shook his head.

"No but I know her name and a couple of other details." Tony grinned at him and Steve groaned, knowing the man was up to something.

XXX

Eleanor curled up on the oversized chair she'd claimed as her own and absently sipped a mug of earl grey as she looked at her computer, frowning when her mobile rang. She picked it up and answered.

"Hey, is this Eleanor Claire?" Somewhat familiar annoying American tones rang out.

"Yes Mr Stark. I'll not bother asking how you got hold of my phone number." There was a moment of silence at the other end, Stark obviously not having expected her to recognise his voice immediately.

"Well, anyway, since you obviously already know who I am, I was wondering if you are doing anything tomorrow?"

"Well, if you want a date Mr Stark then I have an unmissable appointment with a good book but otherwise..." There was another moment of silence then a snort.

"Actually it's capsicle who needs a date and since he seems like you, well... So what I was think was, Natasha (who looks like she'll kill me if I don't find a way for her not to be at this conference tomorrow) picks you up in the morning and spends the day dress shopping with you and whatever else is necessary to get you girls ready for a high society ball round here, on my card obviously and then in the evening you basically go to a very posh ball and protect spangles from actually having to deal with girls by being his date..." Eleanor snorted softly.

"I get the idea. I spend my oh so busy day get primped from here to hell and back and then go to a ball as Steve's date?"

"Yep, and because it will obviously finish way too late to drop you home I've already booked you a hotel. You can grab some night clothes and a change of clothes on my card as well as all the evening stuff you'll need." Eleanor raised an eyebrow, even though the man could not see it. Who was she to turn down a couple of obscenely expensive outfits, a night in a posh hotel and an evening with a super hero at a posh ball for free?

"Well I guess that book will just have to deal with being jilted then." She sighed dramatically. There was another of those pauses that seemed to be a standard of her conversations with Stark, as if she never quite said what he was expecting and he had to take a moment to catch up with her latest wacky comment.

"Yes! I'll have Natasha pick you up at nine in the morning. See you tomorrow night." The phone cut off and Eleanor stared at it in bemusement. Well, that was interesting.

XXX

The next morning Eleanor was picked up by Natasha fairly early for their shopping spree, the red headed assassin admitting that in revenge for subjecting her to the superhero conference she fully intended to not only max out Tony's credit card on really expensive clothes but also on a full spa treatment and hairdressing service. Eleanor grinned at the red head, just knowing they would get along.

Once they were in London Natasha drove them to the sort of store you just knew you couldn't afford. There was hardly anything on display and none of it had prices. The lady who appeared to be the manager (she was very smartly dressed and of 'a certain' age) apparently knew they were coming by as she greeted both by name. When she looked at Eleanor her eyes flickered near imperceptibly down her figure even as a slightly insincere smile spread across her features.

They were led into a very comfortable room with a changing section cordoned off to the side while their hostess excused herself to retrieve a few suggestions. Once she was out of earshot Eleanor leant over to Natasha.

"Well, way to say loose a few pounds in weight and swap them for an income of a couple of million a year, or better yet a husband with an income of a couple of million a year in one near indiscernible glance." She muttered dryly, earning a light smile and a curious look from the assassin.

"You are remarkably observant."

"I was the unpopular kid at school in a fairly bad area. I am also mildly Aspergers. I had to be taught all those non-verbal cues everyone else picked up naturally. I was either invisible and watched people as a substitute for human contact or had to pay attention to get out of being bullied. Either way I'm now fairly good at spotting things like that." Natasha seemed a bit surprised at the comment and seemed to be paying close attention to Eleanor even as their hostess returned with an arm full of clothes in protective bags. She lay them out on a table and looked about to start a lightly patronising commentary as Eleanor rose and looked over the items. Immediately one caught her eye, a fairly unusual number.

It was made of a stiff navy blue and gold figured silk with a pattern similar to brocade though clearly designed for the dress. The strapless bodice was corset style with a flaring skirt that came to mid calf, the only feature beside the ornate fabric being the lacing at the back.

"I presume this is properly boned with steel rather than fashion boning?" Eleanor asked, taking on a slight upper class tone. While neither her nor her parents were rich, they also weren't poor and she'd, during her later adolescence, had a fair bit of exposure to the upper classes and sure knew how to pull a good impression of one. The woman looked a little startles at the cut glass drawl that usually indicated wealth and quickly dropped some of the condescension.

"Of course, Madam. Would you like to try it on?" Eleanor didn't even look at it.

"I will need shoes to properly gauge the effect. Either blue or gold satin, though crimson satin might well be interesting as well, add a little quirk you might say." The woman nodded, looking a little surprised and rushed off to give orders while Eleanor sauntered into the changing area. She quickly changed before coming up against a bit of a problem. "Natasha, would you mind helping with the lacing?"

The red head came round the curtain with a slight smile and began doing up the back with the sort of practised ease that made it look like she laced corsets on a regular basis. As she finished the woman returned with a few pairs of shoes for Eleanor to peruse. She immediately discarded the more gaudy pairs that, while highly fashionable, weren't all that stylish and definitely wouldn't go with the dress. After a little thought she chose a nearly midnight blue pair of heels made of a taffeta type material and fairly high mid heels. She slipped them on and twirled in front of the semi-circle of mirrors, glad she'd put her hair up in a bun that morning.

"What are you thinking?" Natasha asked, not quite being able to read her face. The assassin was rather curious about her as all the time they'd known each other she'd been having a certain amount of trouble reading the girl. She guessed it was due to Eleanor having to learn body language and thus her own being slightly off the norm. At the moment she was wearing an impressively impassive look, thought the spy didn't think it was deliberate.

"Subtle classic sapphires, set in gold. Necklace and earrings, probably not a bracelet or a small one. The dress is too ornate for too much with it. Its good for my figure though." She spoke almost as if she were thinking aloud. She then seemed to snap out of it. "Well I think that's the dress sorted. I was a little surprised to find what I wanted immediately, but I'm not complaining." Natasha was a bit surprised that she'd come out with something in mind and it must have shown on her face because Eleanor smiled at her. "If you ever look at my wardrobe you'll find that a decent chunk is custom made. I tend to make patterns of exactly what I want and a friend of mine makes it up for me. Now shall we get on to the other items we intended to buy or are you getting evening wear as well?"

In the end they got Natasha an elegant Grecian gown in forest green that concealed a large slit up the side that allowed her to conceal weapons and was delicately embroidered with gold round the empire line waist and neckline.

Many hours later the two were sitting in the Salon of their hotel as some very expensive hairdressers bickered over the best hairstyles for the two while some treatments set in. After a while Eleanor asked for her handbag with an enigmatic smile and quickly found and removed a fairly small jewellery bag.

"This, woven into a halo braid as a cap in the middle." She commented, holding the back out to the stylists, one of whom took it with an odd look and opened it. His eyes widened as he took out the item within and unfolded it. It was a hand made circular hairnet of fine white silk thread with gold, pearl or lapis lazuli beads at the joins. There was an almost awed silence. Eventually one of the stylists regained his breath.

"Where did you get this?" She smiled at him.

"I made it." He stared at her slightly slack jawed.

"It is exquisite. I may well be interested in buying more off you at some point." She shrugged nonchalantly.

"I'll think about it." The stylist nodded, still looking rather surprised at the beautiful and rare hair accessory in his hand. Natasha was looking at her, question in her eye and Eleanor seemed to get that she was asking why she would be carrying such a thing round. "When I said I knew what I wanted, I wasn't kidding."

XXX

There was something immensely gratifying about the look on Steve's face as she proceeded elegantly down the richly carpeted staircase to where the men were waiting for her, Pepper and Natasha. Pepper had apparent come over for some serious business for Stark industries while the Avengers were playing with the convention and it was actually part of that business that the ball was being held. Eleanor had rather wondered since superhero fans weren't noted for being the types to hold posh balls.

Steve looked pole axed, as did Tony to be honest. He clearly hadn't expected her to clean up that well. The other males were more speculative in their examination of the woman Tony had set Steve up with, curious about her.

As they reached the bottom of the stairs Steve managed to snap out of his shock and take her hand, kissing the back with an awed expression.

"Wow." He breathed. She gave him a small smile.

"Thank you." Steve grinned and spun her around, showing off the flair of the dress. She blushed slightly and planted a kiss almost on his cheek, careful not to get the very loud classic red lipstick on his cheek.

"Wow, you clean up well." Steve grinned as he saw her roll her eyes at the obnoxious American drawl. "Shall we go in?" She raised a supercilious eyebrow at him.

"One was under the impression it is considered polite to introduce one's companions first?" The other males raised an eyebrow at the queen's English and aristocratic drawl. Natasha gave her a long look. Pepper, who was the person (bar Natasha and Steve) who knew she didn't normally talk like that, grinned and poked Tony before turning to introduce the rest of the Avenger, and Coulson, who had been brought along to 'mind' them.

It was more than slightly amusing for those in the know when she cheerfully greeted Bruce in perfectly normal english, without a hint of the condescending tone she'd used on Tony, that the collective Avengers (bar Natasha and Steve) jaws dropped. Somehow Coulson either already knew it was put on to annoy Tony, or was very good at hiding his surprise (Eleanor would happily have bet on both).

About ten minutes later, once everyone had been introduced and Tony had got over his spluttering, they entered the hall and were formally introduced.

Everything was going well when, a couple of hours later, a group of armed men somehow appeared and impressively quickly restrained the Avengers, by default of holding guns to their heads, as well as those of all their dates (Pepper and Eleanor) and several other party-goers. Everyone stopped still in a tableau of shock.

Eleanor could see all of the Avengers trying to work out how to get out of this with the minimum of injuries, something that looked inevitable in the situation. She covertly looked at their attacker, noting rather more attention was being paid to the Avengers, and to Pepper, than her. Apparently they did not expect her to cause trouble.

In a rather clichéd way, the leader was proselytising in front of them, telling everyone how terribly great he was. Absently she thanked whichever deities were listening for her delayed panic reaction and wobbled on her very high heels. The leader noticed and paused to come over to her, eyes fixing on the way her gown displayed her bust spectacularly.

"Is there a problem, little lady?" He asked, giving her a lecherous grin. She gave him an artfully innocent sheepish look as if she wasn't really cut out for this.

"My heels are rather high. I'm not used to standing such high heels for so long and my ankles are giving out." She gave him a helpless female look, having already pegged him as rather sexist. He gave her a lecherous look and then looked to the man holding a gun to her head.

"All right, let the lady get out of her heels. Wouldn't do for her too fall over and for us to accidentally shoot her." He clearly had other designs, including the fact the increased downwards angle would give him an even better view of her bust. She slowly began to move to take the shoes off and gave an artful little yelp of pain as she 'slipped' feigning her ankle giving out. One leg slid out with impressive speed, catching the ankle of the man holding the gun at her, sending him flying with the full force of her weight focussed on that foot. He dropped his gun and, in an adrenalin fuelled rush, Eleanor caught it and shot of a number of shots, catching the man, the leader and Steve's captor.

That lead to a burst of activity as the Avengers took the distraction to take out the other gunmen. Rolling out the way of the falling gunmen, Eleanor carried on shooting whenever she got a clear shot at a gunman but within moments it was all over, the entire group disabled. That was also when the adrenalin began to wear off. Though Eleanor didn't noticed it, Natasha saw the adrenalin begin to bleed out of her and told Steve to go hug her, betting that he'd be the most help.

Not long after the British version of SHIELD arrived, and soon Eleanor was whisked off with the Avengers while the suited lackey section handled tidying up. Eleanor went through that slowly sinking into shock. It was that that convinced Fury's British counterpart (a hard man by the name of Wisdom) she was not a professional, since he had a hard time believing that a civilian could do what she had done. When he directly questioned her on it was the only time she spoke that evening and her voice was rather wan.

"I grew up in a less than savoury area and hand to hand self defence was part of P.E. at school, as well as the less official tips shared between girls for how to deal with being attacked. I know its not quite the same but when they attacked I just reacted." The man nodded.

"That fits with what we have on you." Eleanor just nodded, not at all surprised or appearing to be all that worried, though the latter could have been the shock settling in.

XXX

It was very late when they were all released from their debriefing, Wisdom with a hard eye still on the English girl. It was at the point that Eleanor made it clear she had no intention of being out of touching distance of Steve any time soon. He'd been highly embarrassed and had clearly been trying to work out a way to convince her to sleep in her own room when both Natasha and Pepper and wacked him over the head and hissed at him to just let her sleep in the same room as him. Thus it was that he ended up with the English girl snuggled to his chest, dressed in an obscenely expensive satin nightgown that was really rather lovely – and interesting, to put it delicately. It was some time before he went to sleep, rather awkwardly holding Eleanor to his chest.

The next morning he woke to her utterly out for the count, snuggled quite contentedly against his chest and went a nice shade of red as, without any consultation with his sense of propriety, his brain supplied that she felt rather nice curled up there.

It appeared that his stiffening began the process of waking Eleanor and some moments later she snuffled against his chest. It took a fair few more moments before she registered that she was sleeping in someone's arms. Steve could tell when she did for she stiffened.

"Erm..." He laughed, smiling at the sheepishness on her face.

"You insisted." She smiled shyly at him, an expression that turned wan at the returning memory of why she had insisted. Awkwardly Steve hugged her. "You saved a lot of lives with your quick actions. I'm very proud of you." She gave him another little smile.

"I know but I..." She trailed off. He gave her a sad smile.

"I know. It was necessary. I know that does not make it easier but if you had not done that, they would have killed others." She nodded and curled into his arms.

"Maybe we should get up and wash, and then go to breakfast." She nodded at that and, after a little more snuggling for fortification, she padded off to her room. A while later he joined Steve and the Avengers in the breakfast room. Steve noticed he wasn't the only one watching her closely, Natasha, Pepper and Bruce were also doing so unobtrusively. Apparently all were aware she wasn't trained in a soldier mentality and were watching for signs of the inevitable break. Tony, it was soon revealed, was more perceptive than he pretended to be.

"So do you have anything to do in the near future?" Eleanor shrugged.

"I have to sign on tomorrow. One of the joys of unemployment, but beyond that, nothing in particular." Tony smiled at her.

"Why don't you sign off instead?" She gave him a funny look.

"Because I don't have a job..." She said slowly, tone implying she thought he was being a bit slow. He smiled at her.

"Yeah you do. You're the only person who seems to have any success teaching Capsicle about the modern world. You are thus employed by me to train him up and stop him exploding my tech!" She blinked at him.

"You do know it is generally considered polite to ask a person first, right?" Tony grinned.

"Yep, but hey, I always get what I want and its a real good job, honest." She laughed.

"Whatever. I'll think about it." He grinned, knowing he'd already won. Once Eleanor had been hustled upstairs by Pepper and Natasha, Steve turned to Tony.

"What was that about?" Tony smiled.

"She'd got PTSD after last night, which is kinda my fault for shanghai-ing her into being your date. If she's with us in the tower I can make sure she gets proper care for it. This comes with the significantly helpful side order of the fact she seems to be good at explaining the modern world to you in ways no-one else seems to be able to. So I have a good reason, which is very Tony to keep her there, which is actually helpful, that also allows me to help her." Clint, Coulson, Bruce and Steve all stared at Tony, not quite believing the sensitivity of that thought. Steve then smiled broadly and approvingly at Tony, thanking him before excusing himself. Tony just sat at the table staring in shock at the fact he'd apparently earned the approval of Captain America of all people.

XXX

In light of their new associate they opted to stay a little longer in Britain (bar Pepper, who was needed in the States) so they could all fly back with Eleanor, who needed time to pack. Her family had been more than a little shocked at the announcement that within a week she would be in America. It was noted by more than one person that she was carefully sanitising the information of what had happened at the ball for them.

While the Avengers were helping Eleanor pack and prepare to up and leave for another continent Coulsen was talking with Wisdom, who was not too happy about the fact that they were taking her out of the country.

"Director Wisdom, may I ask why her leaving the country is a matter of complaint for you?" The director gave the American agent a hard look.

"Because I was thinking of recruiting her. Untrained she managed to disable a trained gunman, catch his gun out of the air and shoot with deadly accuracy a number of other attackers without harming anyone. I'll grant that she then went into shock which is understandable in a person without training. I've looked at her file. She's highly intelligent, got a good uni degree, one which would have been a lot better if someone had taught her how to right an essay properly. I looked over some of her work. She has an impressive understanding of people, a gift for negotiation and thinking outside the box. I just wish she had come to our attention sooner. I'd bet quite a lot she'd make a ruddy good agent. Thus I am not so pleased that you are poaching her." Coulsen smiled one of his bureaucratic smiles at the man.

"You are aware SHIELD have nothing to do with her coming to America? Tony Stark decided to give her a job, that of acclimatising the good Captain to the modern era. So far our own people have had a limited amount of success, whereas she has already shown an aptitude for doing so. It is also a position designed to help her with the PTSD she is showing signs of. I do know that the widow, Captain Rogers and Mr Barton have every intention of teaching her at least some of the skills of an Agent but she is not being poached by SHIELD, rather by the Avengers who are at best nominally under our command." Wisdom grunted at that. The entire international intelligence core knew that the Avengers were loose cannons that sometimes took orders from Fury.

"Something tells me I don't have much chance of poaching her back?" Coulsen gave a genuine smile this time.

"Probably not, but it will be interesting to watch – for all of us. Starting with the fact I'm willing to bet she'll deliberately drive Fury up the wall. She seems to enjoy putting on a vastly upperclass English lady pretension round Tony Stark because she views him as a loud, uncouth and uncivilised American. Can you imagine her round Fury?" Wisdom stared up at the ceiling, wicked smile playing round his mouth.

"Now, _that_ could be amusing." The two agents, long time friends, both smirked wickedly. Eleanor would drive Fury insane.

XXX

Eleanor followed the Avengers off the plane into the Avengers Tower, looking round curiously as she went. Shortly however, the companionable silence between the group (Tony had, for once, shut up for a bit) was broken by the sight of an intimidating black man standing in the middle of the communal seating area.

"Nicky boy!" Tony called, earning rolled eyes from the rest of the team. The man did not respond and so Tony went on to question him about his presence, it becoming clear (as if she'd needed to be told) that the man was not invited and not really welcome either.

Eleanor gave a polite little cough and all eyes turned on her. Nick Fury's eyebrows rose up as he focussed in on her.

"Pardon me but I was under the impression that, as uncouth and primitive as you colonials are, that we had at least taught you the fine art of knocking, or at least of obtaining permission to enter a person's home before we threw our hands up at your impressive barbarism. Then again one cannot expect such a new and uncivilised country to have kept up the time honoured traditions of manners that so define a civilised country." She'd dropped back into the upperclass drawl that so irritated Tony and watched with amusement as Fury's jaw dropped. The Avengers were all covering smiles, knowing she did that solely to irritate people. Fury quickly rallied.

"Miss Claire I presume?" She gave him a sardonic smile.

"Indeed Mr Stanley." Only some of the Avengers seemed to get the response, unsurprisingly Bruce and Natasha being the first. Fury rolled his eyes.

"Director Wisdom informed me about you. Or actually he phoned me to rant about me poaching potential agents. He seems rather impressed by you." Eleanor gave him a supercilious look.

"That's nice. If he wanted me he should have offered me a job first. And I wasn't aware I had agreed to any association with you. I have agreed to aid Captain Roger acclimatise to the present era. Something your people seem to have failed spectacularly at. I have no intention of joining your organisation or working for you." A vein seemed to pop in Fury's head.

"You are aware being round your new associated is rather dangerous?" She closed her eyes, expression that of a parent dealing with a particularly trying child. She opened her eyes again and gave the director a hard look.

"Since I have, within a day or so of associating with them had to kill four men and severely injure several other when we were attacked, I think it should be obvious. After all, the English are not the ones with the mentality of a four year old." Fury stared at her.

"You are saying the Americans have the mentality of a four year old?" The corner of her mouth curled up again.

"Attention span of a _guppy_ , impressive ability to hold grudges, throws a tantrum whenever things don't go their way, then attacks whatever or whoever displeased them and usually hits something that had the misfortune of being approximately next door because, you know, bad aim? Yep that sounds like the Americans." Steve decided to intervene at that point, seeing how much the pulsing vein in Fury's forehead was going. He slung an arm round her waist awkwardly with a smile as she looked up at him.

"Stop goading him, his hearts not as good as it used to be." Eleanor stared at him, handing coming up to cover her mouth as she giggled. She then buried her head in his shoulder as she practically collapsed giggling against his chest. Steve didn't notice his arm automatically coming round to hold her. All the rest of the room's inhabitants were staring at him.

"He made a funny!" Eleanor withdrew her head from his chest.

"And on the subject of four year olds..." Steve snorted, a sound echoed by the rest of the Avengers. Fury seemed to come to a decision, nodding slightly.

"Welcome to America, Miss Claire. Do try to stay out of trouble." He turned and strolled out of the room, deliberately ignoring Eleanor muttering.

"I thought spies weren't supposed to be optimists?" The rest of the Avengers grinned at her and burst out laughing.

Finite


End file.
